A global pandemic: Why SEO is more important than ever

We’re living in unprecedented times and businesses of all sizes are facing their toughest period yet. This global pandemic, COVID-19, is affecting everyone – and business leaders are coming to terms with what this might mean for their business. There’s a lot of doom and gloom on the news, with people preparing for the worst. Commercially speaking, there will be some losers this year, but there’ll be some winners too.

Businesses can thrive in hard times, and the key to survival is search engine marketing (SEM). Search engine marketing is the term we use to cover the work that we do behind the scenes to increase the visibility of your website in the search engine results pages (SERPs) and includes both organic search activities such as SEO and paid search advertising as well. Saying that SEM is key to survival isn’t a statement we make lightly – let’s have a closer look at our reasoning behind this:

Reason One: SEO can help to drive your cash flow

In stark terms, in order to survive the next few months, your business will need steady cash flow. The number one driver of cash flow is an opt-in email list and paid and organic search marketing. They’re the primary ways to reach your customers at this time of need. Investing in SEO means that your customers will find your brand and connect with it when they’re looking for your product or service.

Think about it logically. If people are at home more over the coming weeks, then they’re probably going to spend more time online than usual. Making sure your brand appears in front of them when they’re searching for things that are relevant to you is critical if you want them to spend money with you during this difficult time. It won’t solve everything and you’ll probably still have a loss of revenue during the pandemic. However, if you’re at least investing in a search engine marketing strategy, then you’ll appear in organic search results of people who are looking to buy.

Reason Two: You can measure your return on investment (ROI)

With search engine marketing campaigns we can quickly see what’s working and what isn’t. Buyer behaviour is bound to change quite dramatically in the coming weeks. If we keep a close eye on the data, we can start to promote the content on your website that appeals to the current mood of the customer or focus more on keywords that have stronger buyer intent at the moment.

Spending your marketing budget wisely is critical right now, and every penny has to be effective. As marketers, we’re going to have to be even more reactive over the coming months.

Reason Three: People will search online when goods are scarce

We’re going to go out on a limb here and say that the number one search in google at the moment is ‘toilet roll’ or something like that! When they can’t get goods on the shelves, people are going online to search for them. If you can get in the search results for popular terms like this, then your business could see a lot of traffic to your site. Now, there’s a word of caution attached to this. Your business has to be relevant to these terms otherwise people will be turned off if they click through to your website and can’t find anything relevant. There’s no point ranking for toilet paper if you don’t sell it as you may start a riot!

What we have to do is be clever with the keywords we’re targeting, capitalising on the items that are popular in searches and working to rank our clients’ websites for those items that are relevant, as well as topics around them.

For example, we work with a PVC strip curtains retailer and part of their range is antimicrobial strip curtains. We anticipate that these will be a popular line in the upcoming months and so we’re creating content based around the relevant keywords, sending out e-shots promoting these products and considering a PPC campaign.

Reason Four: People still need access to products and services

Yes, the world is going to look and feel different for the next few weeks, but people are still going to need access to products and services. If they can’t go outside then they’re going to look online.

Now, we’ve said in the past that SEO isn’t a quick fix – it’s a long-term game and this still holds true. However, our existing clients are currently in a great position because we’ve been working on their SEO campaigns for a while now. They already have a lot of traction in the search engine results pages (SERPS).

On the flip side, it’s a fairly straightforward process to set up a Google Ads campaign, which may be the way to go if you want to get some traction on new keywords you haven’t targeted before. Google Ads are a great way to go at the moment as they can bring fairly instantaneous results if mapped out properly, with that only improving over the weeks and months as campaigns are tightly managed.

Reason Five: Things will go back to ‘normal’ eventually

We’re facing tough measures at the moment, and for the foreseeable future, but at some point, these measures will relax and we can go back to ‘normal’ – whatever that may be. Whatever happens, search engine marketing has been and always will be one of the most effective ways to reach customers. The more momentum you can get now, the better things will be for you at the end of all this too.

At the end of the day, search engine marketing is the most effective way to invest in your business in this time of a global pandemic, and our team can help you with that. To talk through your options please call us on 01625 238 770 or email us at hello@zool.agency

A global pandemic: Why SEO is more important than ever

Digital /Apr 20, 2020

We’re living in unprecedented times and businesses of all sizes are facing their toughest period yet. This global pandemic, COVID-19, is affecting everyone – and business leaders are coming to terms with what this might mean for their business. There’s a lot of doom and gloom on the news, with people preparing for the worst. Commercially speaking, there will be some losers this year, but there’ll be some winners too.

Businesses can thrive in hard times, and the key to survival is search engine marketing (SEM). Search engine marketing is the term we use to cover the work that we do behind the scenes to increase the visibility of your website in the search engine results pages (SERPs) and includes both organic search activities such as SEO and paid search advertising as well. Saying that SEM is key to survival isn’t a statement we make lightly – let’s have a closer look at our reasoning behind this:

Reason One: SEO can help to drive your cash flow

In stark terms, in order to survive the next few months, your business will need steady cash flow. The number one driver of cash flow is an opt-in email list and paid and organic search marketing. They’re the primary ways to reach your customers at this time of need. Investing in SEO means that your customers will find your brand and connect with it when they’re looking for your product or service.

Think about it logically. If people are at home more over the coming weeks, then they’re probably going to spend more time online than usual. Making sure your brand appears in front of them when they’re searching for things that are relevant to you is critical if you want them to spend money with you during this difficult time. It won’t solve everything and you’ll probably still have a loss of revenue during the pandemic. However, if you’re at least investing in a search engine marketing strategy, then you’ll appear in organic search results of people who are looking to buy.

Reason Two: You can measure your return on investment (ROI)

With search engine marketing campaigns we can quickly see what’s working and what isn’t. Buyer behaviour is bound to change quite dramatically in the coming weeks. If we keep a close eye on the data, we can start to promote the content on your website that appeals to the current mood of the customer or focus more on keywords that have stronger buyer intent at the moment.

Spending your marketing budget wisely is critical right now, and every penny has to be effective. As marketers, we’re going to have to be even more reactive over the coming months.

Reason Three: People will search online when goods are scarce

We’re going to go out on a limb here and say that the number one search in google at the moment is ‘toilet roll’ or something like that! When they can’t get goods on the shelves, people are going online to search for them. If you can get in the search results for popular terms like this, then your business could see a lot of traffic to your site. Now, there’s a word of caution attached to this. Your business has to be relevant to these terms otherwise people will be turned off if they click through to your website and can’t find anything relevant. There’s no point ranking for toilet paper if you don’t sell it as you may start a riot!

What we have to do is be clever with the keywords we’re targeting, capitalising on the items that are popular in searches and working to rank our clients’ websites for those items that are relevant, as well as topics around them.

For example, we work with a PVC strip curtains retailer and part of their range is antimicrobial strip curtains. We anticipate that these will be a popular line in the upcoming months and so we’re creating content based around the relevant keywords, sending out e-shots promoting these products and considering a PPC campaign.

Reason Four: People still need access to products and services

Yes, the world is going to look and feel different for the next few weeks, but people are still going to need access to products and services. If they can’t go outside then they’re going to look online.

Now, we’ve said in the past that SEO isn’t a quick fix – it’s a long-term game and this still holds true. However, our existing clients are currently in a great position because we’ve been working on their SEO campaigns for a while now. They already have a lot of traction in the search engine results pages (SERPS).

On the flip side, it’s a fairly straightforward process to set up a Google Ads campaign, which may be the way to go if you want to get some traction on new keywords you haven’t targeted before. Google Ads are a great way to go at the moment as they can bring fairly instantaneous results if mapped out properly, with that only improving over the weeks and months as campaigns are tightly managed.

Reason Five: Things will go back to ‘normal’ eventually

We’re facing tough measures at the moment, and for the foreseeable future, but at some point, these measures will relax and we can go back to ‘normal’ – whatever that may be. Whatever happens, search engine marketing has been and always will be one of the most effective ways to reach customers. The more momentum you can get now, the better things will be for you at the end of all this too.

At the end of the day, search engine marketing is the most effective way to invest in your business in this time of a global pandemic, and our team can help you with that. To talk through your options please call us on 01625 238 770 or email us at hello@zool.agency